Training devices

ABSTRACT

A simulator by which a pupil can learn something of the art of sailing, has a sail, a device for giving the sail a fluttering movement, and means for starting and stopping the fluttering so that the pupil can be provided with a representation of the fluttering of a sail which occurs in actual sailing. The fluttering is preferably started and stopped automatically by a control system and the device is conveniently a vibrator carried by the sail itself. In learning to sail on water, pupils have difficulty both in determining the direction of the wind, and in setting the sails to provide a useful forward thrust even when the wind direction is known. It is found that this difficulty is minimised for pupils who have been trained on the present simulator.

I I United States Patent 1 1 3,783,530 Duval Jan. 8, 1974 TRAINING DEVICES Primary Examiner-Wm. H. Grieb [75] Inventor: Bruce Duval, Nassau, Bahamas Atmmey jacobs & Jacobs [73] Assignee: T. P.. I. Limited, Nassau, Bahamas [57] ABSTRACT [22] Filed: Dec. 6, 1971 A simulator by which a pupil can learn something of l PP N03 205,176 the art of sailing, has a sail, a device for giving the sail I a fluttering movement, and means for starting and [30] Foreign Application Priority Data pp the fluttering so that the P p F be P Dec- 5 1970 Great Britain 57 887/70 vided with a representation of the fluttering of a sail which occurs in actual sailing. The fluttering is prefer- [52] US Cl 35/11 ably started and stopped automatically by a control [51] In. CL 9/06 system and the device. is conveniently a Vibrator cap [58] Field of 35/11 ried by the sail itself. In learning to sail on water, pu-

. pils have difficulty both in determining the direction [56] Referenc Cited of the wind, and in setting the sails to provide a useful UNITED STATES PATENTS forward thrust even when the wind direction is known. I It is found that this difficulty is minimised for pupils 5; g y r 35/ who have been trained on the present simulator. ousseau 10 Claims, 1 Drawing Figure TRAINING DEVICES The present invention relates to training devices and has as an object the provision of a training device by which a pupil may be instructed in the art of sailing.

In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a sailing simulator having a hull unit, a helm operable to vary the heading of the hull unit relative to a supposed wind, a sail on the hull unit, a device carried by the hull unit for giving the sail a fluttering movement, and means for starting and stopping the fluttering movement so that a pupil can be provided with a representation of the fluttering of a sail which occurs in sailing.

Even with a simple form of the simulator a pupil can be given valuable instruction. In sailing, a sail can pro duce a forward driving thrust only when it is set correctly relative to the wind. If it is aligned too closely with the wind, it produces no useful forward driving thrust and may even produce a reverse thrust resulting in sternway. Loss of thrust as the sail is brought closer into alignment with the wind by means of the helm or by manipulating the sail, is associated with the commencement of a fluttering of the sail. The commencement of fluttering is readily recognisable. Even though it may lag behind the loss of useful forward thrust it is found that the fluttering gives a clear indication to the pupil that the usefulness of the sail has been or is being lost. He can then take appropriate action. In the case of a foresail he may move the helm to find a bearing further away from the wind at which no fluttering occurs. In the case of a mainsail he can move the helm and/or manipulate the mainsheet.

For some teaching purposes, it is sufficient to provide a foresail and a fluttering device therefor, the mainsail having no such device or even being omitted. Thus, with the foresail fully sheeted-in so that after edge of the sail is at its extreme position to port or starboard, the pupil may find a course close to the wind by turning progressively closer to the wind until the foresail begins to flutter. He can then bear away from the wind until the fluttering clearly ceases, thus indicating that he has found a course which is as close to the wind as is reasonably possible. The exercise may be repeated on both port and starboard tacks as necessary, and with supposed winds of varying force and direction.

For other teaching purposes, there may be provided a mainsail and a foresail each having a fluttering device. For example, having found a course as just'described, the pupil may then bring the mainsail into a useful position at which no fluttering occurs.

In actual sailing, the novice can have great difficulty in determining the direction of the relative wind with precision and setting his sails close hauled. Practice with a simulator as so far described herein can do much to reduce this difficulty. 1

A simulator having a fluttering device on the mainsail only is useful for teaching the setting of the mainsail, for example on a tack which is not critically close to the wind.

It will be understood that it is not necessary for the said or each sail to be a sail which is suitable for use in actual sailing. It is indeed preferred to provide only the bottom part of the sail when the simulator is built to full scale in order to avoid the difficulty of housing a mast of full height in enclosed premises.

Various constructions are possible within the scope of the invention, including constructions in which the means for starting and stopping the fluttering movement are manually operated by an instructor and constructions in which the hull unit is a small scale model of a sailing craft mounted for change of heading in response to a helm operable by the pupil from an observation point away from the hull unit.

The hull unit is preferably a full-scale hull or representation thereof in which the pupil is accommodated and which has the helm mounted thereon. Changes of heading in response to the helm may be represented by movement of the hull unit or by movement of a scene surrounding the hull unit. In the latter case, the direction of the supposed wind is of course changed with the movement of the scene. For added realism and in order to give th pupil more information on the significance of his manipulation of the sails, the hull unit is also preferably mounted for heeling movement.

In a preferred arrangement, the hull unit is mounted for-heeling movement and change of heading as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,471,943, has an automatic heeling system as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,531,875, has a boom control system as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,540,134, has a system for determining the direction of the wind relative to the hull unit as described in-U.S. Pat. No. 3,457,783 and has a tiller system as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,597,856,.said Patents all being of th applicant and Rogor S. Waddington.

The fluttering device is conveniently a vibrator carried by the sail to be given a fluttering movement thereby. This simple arrangement avoids the provision of a mechanical linkage with the hull unit or such items as electric fans on the hull unit whose operation might be observed by the pupil and used instead of the fluttering for guidance. A preferred vibrator is an electric motor mounted in rotary driving relationship with an -out-ofbalance load. 1

The means for starting and stopping the fluttering movement is preferably automatic. For this purpose it may be arranged to compare the direction of the sail with the direction of a supposed wind and to provide an' output which operates/the device to give a fluttering movement of the sail when the sail would be fluttered by an acutal wind coinciding in direction with the supposed wind. Conveniently it is operable to compare voltages corresponding with the direction of the sail and the direction of the supposed wind to provide the output. The voltages may, for example, be derived from potentiometers set by the direction of the sail and the direction of the supposed wind. A potentiometer is, of course, a simple form of mechanical-electrical transducer.

Where a mainsail and foresail each with its fluttering device are provided, the direction of the mainsail may The drawing shows in schematic form, a preferred example of a sailing simulator in accordance with the invention.

A hull unit 1 is mounted for heeling rotation about a horizontal axis H H upon a base 2, which is in turn mounted for rotation about a vertical axis V to provide for changes of heading in response to a tiller 3. Mounting a hull unit in this way is described in U.S. Pat. 3,471,943. Within the base are housed parts of various control systems as described in U.S. Pats. Nos. 3,457,783, 3,531,875, 3,540,134 and 3,597,856. Briefly, the pupil has for his controls the tiller 3, a mainsheet 4 attached to a boom 5 and jib sheets 6 attached to a foresail 7. A mainsail 8 is attached in the conventional manner to the boom 5 and a mast 9. The hull unit and the boom 5 behave in a realistic manner in response to the operation of the controls.

Sewn within the leading edge of the foresail 7 is a flutter device 10 in the form of a small electric motor 11 having an out-of-balance flywheel 12. The leading edge of the mainsail 8 is similarly provided with a motor 13 with a flywheel 14. For clarity of illustration the flutter devices are shown again in a circuit for starting and stopping them. This circuit is located partly in the hull 1 and partly in the base 2.

In the circuit are potentiometers 15, 16 and 17 connected across a common voltage supply. The wipers of these potentiometers are driven mechanically to positions representing the position of the foresail 7, the direction of the supposed wind relative to the hull unit 1, and the direction of the wind relative to the boom 5. In the drawing the reference numerals of the hull, foresail and boom are shown in brackets below the reference numerals of the corresponding potentiometers.

The output voltage obtained from potentiometer l6 representing the angle of the wind to the hull is supplied to an input of each of a pair of polarity responsive amplifiers 18 and 19. These amplifiers each have a second input which in the case of amplifier 18 is supplied with the output representing the foresail position form potentiometer and in the case of amplifier 19 is supplied with the output representing the angle of the boom to the wind from potentiometer 17.

If the pupil turns into the wind to such an extent that the foresail is brought into correspondence with the wind, amplifier 18 produces an output which energises a coil 20 to close a glass encapsulated reed switch 21 to energise motor 11 and cause the foresail 7 to flutter. Fluttering ceases when the pupil bears away from the wind. A relay 22 short-circuits the reed switch 21 to produce continuous fluttering of the foresail when the hull is within 45 of the wind. This relay 22 is actuated by a micro switch 23.

A relay, not shown, opens the supply to reed switch contacts 21 to stop the foresail fiutterif the foresail is backed, i.e. set against the wind on the same side of the craft as the wind.

Bringing the boom into correspondence with the wind produces an output form amplifier 19 such as to close a reed switch, similar to switch 21, by energising a coil 25.

Reference has just been made to bringing the foresail and the boom into correspondence with the wind. The apparatus may be so designed that fluttering occurs when the foresail and boom are geometrically aligned with the wind or it may, if preferred, be designed that fluttering occurs in one or both cases before, or even after, geometrical alignment is reached. The term correspondence is to be interpreted accordingly. For most purposes consistency of behaviour is more important than geometrical precision.

Potentiometer 17 is connected with the voltage supply via a polarity reversing relay 26 having a coil 27 energised by a micro switch 28 which is closed when the wind is to port and opened when the wind is to starboard or vice versa. In this way the fluttering of the mainsail is made to commence when the situation requires it, irrespective of the bow on which the wind is coming.

A different arrangement is provided to produce the same effect for the foresail. A crank 29, rotated about a pivot 30 as the foresail is moved relative to the hull, drives a second crank 31, pivoted at 32, by means of a connecting rod 33. The wiper of potentiometer l5,

which is rotated by the crank 31, moves with the foresailbut its direction of movement is reversed when crank 29 is aligned with connecting rod 33. Therefore,

the setting of potentiometer 15 depends-upon the magnitude of the displacement of the foresail from the foreaft direction but is independent of the direction of that displacement.

Wind direction potentiometer 16 has on its wiper spindle a pinion 34 driven be a rack 35 linked with a cam-follower 36 loaded to bear radially against a cam 37. The angular position of cam 37 depends upon the direction of the supposed wind relative to the hulls unit. Cam 37 is driven by a device (indicated at 38) as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,457,783 which also serves to provide an input for controlling the heeling function and the operation of the boom (U.S. Pats. Nos. 3,531,875 and 3,540,134 n is to be noted, however, that the circuit shown in the drawing is described in its application to a particular simulator for purposes of illustration only, and that with other simulators the potentiometer 16 may be set in other ways, even manually.

Micro switch 23 is actuated by a cam 39 driven with the cam 37 for operating the relay 22. The cam is so profiled that the reed switch 21 is always shortcircuited to give continuous fluttering of the foresail when the wind is within 45 of the bow, irrespective of the setting of the foresail, to simulate pinching.

A third cam 40, driven with earns 37 and 39 is profiled to actuate the change-over relay v26 to reverse the polarity of the voltage applied to potentiometer 17 when the heading of the hull unitpassed through the direction of a headwind, so that the wind changes from port to starboard or vice versa.

Potentiometer 17 is driven by a pinion 41 and a rack 421a which is moved in response to the displacement of the boom 5 from the direction of the wind. The rack 421a is conveniently arranged as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,540,134, i.e. the potentiometer 17 may be a further potentiometer driven together with the potentiometer shown for like purpose in the said Patent, e.g. in a ganged arrangement.

Amplifiers are employed in the system described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,531,875 and 3,540,134 and they are of the same type. It is convenient to use two further amplifiers of the same type for the amplifiers 18and 19. This is readily achieved by providing one of the two output loads of each amplifier in the form of a resistor and connecting the coil 20 or 25 as the other load.

All references made herein to the wind are to be interpreted as references to a supposed wind. The direction of this wind may be varied, e.g. by a manual control operated by an instructor.

I claim:

1. A sailing simulator having a hull unit, a helm operable to vary the heading of the hull unit relative to a supposed wind, a sail on the hull unit, a vibrating device acting on the sail for giving the sail a fluttering movement, and means for starting and stopping the fluttering movement so that a pupil can be provided with a simulation of the fluttering of a sail which occurs in sailing in which the vibrating device is a vibrator carried by the sail to be given a fluttering movement thereby.

2. A simulatorv according to claim 1 in which the device is an electric motor mounted in rotary driving relationship with an out-of-balance load.

3. A sailing simulator having a hull unit, a helm operable to vary the heading of the hull unit relative to a supposed wind, a sail on the hull unit, a vibrating device acting on the sail for giving the sail a fluttering movement, and means for starting and stopping the fluttering movement so that a pupil can be provided with a simulation of fluttering of a sail which occurs in sailing in which the means for starting and stopping the fluttering movement is arranged to compare the direction of the sail with the direction of a supposed wind and to provide an output which operates the device to give fluttering movement of the sail when the sail would be fluttered by an actual wind coinciding in direction with supposed wind.

4. A simulator according to claim 3 in which the hull unit is mounted for turning movement to simulate 6. A simulator according to claim 5 in which the voltages are derived from potentiometers set by the direction of the sail and the direction of the supposed wind. 7. A simulator according to claim 3 having a mainsail boom, a mainsheet for pulling in the mainsail boom and said sail is a foresail.

8. A simulator according to claim 7 in which the mainsail boom has a mainsail thereon and said mainsail is also provided with a vibrating device for giving it a fluttering movement, and means for starting and stopping the fluttering movement so that the pupil can be provided with a representation of the fluttering behaviour of the mainsail which occurs in sailing.

9. A simulator according to claim 8 in which the di rectionof the mainsail boom is arranged to set a first potentiometer, the foresail is arranged to set a second potentiometer, the direction of the supposed wind is arranged to set a third potentiometer and two voltages derived respectively from the first and third and the second and third potentiometers provide outputs for' vided with powered heeling means. 

1. A sailing simulator having a hull unit, a helm operable to vary the heading of the hull unit relative to a supposed wind, a sail on the hull unit, a vibrating device acting on the sail for giving the sail a fluttering movement, and means for starting and stopping the fluttering movement so that a pupil can be provided with a simulation of the fluttering of a sail which occurs in sailing in which the vibrating device is a vibrator carried by the sail to be given a fluttering movement thereby.
 2. A simulator according to claim 1 in which the device is an electric motor mounted in rotary driving relationship with an out-of-balance load.
 3. A sailing simulator having a hull unit, a helm operable to vary the heading of the hull unit relative to a supposed wind, a sail on the hull unit, a vibrating device acting on the sail for giving the sail a fluttering movement, and means for starting and stoppIng the fluttering movement so that a pupil can be provided with a simulation of fluttering of a sail which occurs in sailing in which the means for starting and stopping the fluttering movement is arranged to compare the direction of the sail with the direction of a supposed wind and to provide an output which operates the device to give fluttering movement of the sail when the sail would be fluttered by an actual wind coinciding in direction with supposed wind.
 4. A simulator according to claim 3 in which the hull unit is mounted for turning movement to simulate changes of heading.
 5. A simulator according to claim 3 in which the means for starting and stopping the fluttering movement is operable to compare voltages corresponding with the direction of the sail and the direction of the supposed wind to provide the output.
 6. A simulator according to claim 5 in which the voltages are derived from potentiometers set by the direction of the sail and the direction of the supposed wind.
 7. A simulator according to claim 3 having a mainsail boom, a mainsheet for pulling in the mainsail boom and said sail is a foresail.
 8. A simulator according to claim 7 in which the mainsail boom has a mainsail thereon and said mainsail is also provided with a vibrating device for giving it a fluttering movement, and means for starting and stopping the fluttering movement so that the pupil can be provided with a representation of the fluttering behaviour of the mainsail which occurs in sailing.
 9. A simulator according to claim 8 in which the direction of the mainsail boom is arranged to set a first potentiometer, the foresail is arranged to set a second potentiometer, the direction of the supposed wind is arranged to set a third potentiometer and two voltages derived respectively from the first and third and the second and third potentiometers provide outputs for driving the fluttering devices of the mainsail and the foresail.
 10. A simulator according to claim 3 in which the hull unit is mounted for heeling movement and provided with powered heeling means. 